


trouble in christmas town

by aubadechild



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Christmas, Fluff, Gen, Happy Ending, Light Angst, Post-Canon, Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-23
Updated: 2018-12-23
Packaged: 2019-09-25 16:49:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 5,673
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17125088
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aubadechild/pseuds/aubadechild
Summary: A hero’s work is never over.In the wake of Xehanort’s defeat, pockets of surviving Heartless still threaten the good citizens of the Light. Determined to quash the remaining threat, willing Keyblade wielders volunteer to traverse the worlds, vanquishing what little Darkness still dwells within them. For accomplished warriors such as Sora, Riku, Roxas, and Lea, these missions should be a cakewalk.This mission, however, is anything but.{ written for KH Secret Santa 2018. }





	1. Chapter 1

**🎶 _Oh, the weather outside is frightful_**

**_But the fire is so delightful_ **

**_And since we've no place to go_ **

**_Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!_ 🎵**

 

“He’s not _real,”_ Riku repeated for the umpteenth time since the party first reached the outskirts of Christmas Town.

Behind Riku’s back, Lea rolled his eyes. Lea had been stomping through the fallen snow next to Roxas with his Keyblade slung over his shoulder for reasons Roxas couldn’t even begin to fathom. _Just summon it when you need it like the rest of us,_ Roxas thought to himself. _You don’t need to show off… !_

But he kept his mouth shut, opting instead to observe the idle conversation with more than a hint of amusement fidgeting at the corners of his lips. Their arrival in Christmas Town marked the beginning of their first mission as a cohesive unit; his stomach had been aflutter since they had left their Twilight Town base that morning. After Xehanort’s defeat, mitigating what remained of the Heartless threat had become priority number one for all the brave souls who allied themselves with the Light. Without the looming threat of a war catastrophic enough to end the multiverse, defeating Heartless felt like child’s play. In fact, increasingly Roxas found himself willing to go so far as to admit that it was kind of _fun,_ especially when assigned to a group like this. _Team up with your friends, waste a few monsters, heroically reassure the kindly citizens of their respective worlds, return home;_ _all in a day’s work._ After a lifetime of trauma (albeit, a rather _short_ one thus far, although its duration really only made it comparatively worse, percentage-wise), what more could he ask for? 

“Wait, wait, wait,” Lea said, stopping in his tracks so suddenly that Roxas had to slam on the proverbial emergency brakes to avoid bumping into him. “So, Riku. _Riku, Riku, Riku._ You’re telling me that you can believe in creepy little monsters that magically _poof_ out of existence once defeated by a mortal blow from an _oversized key,_ you can believe in _time travel,_ you can believe in _creatures that literally devour dreams,_ but you can’t believe in _Santa Claus?!”_

A beat passed in which Sora and Roxas glanced at each other like _what have we gotten ourselves into._ Then Riku, stern of brow and stiff of lip, folded his arms and replied, “That’s _exactly_ what I’m saying.” 

“Santa Claus deniers! What’s the world coming to,” Lea muttered. “Y’know, back in _my_ day—“ 

“And by _that_ he means, _‘back in the Age of Fairytales’_ ,” Roxas teased.

Lea dramatically pivoted to look at him, open his mouth, shake his head, and close it again in a wordless one-man performance that he executed so smoothly it might as well have been rehearsed. He paused for comedic effect, then said: “That’s a low blow, Roxas. Although from someone of your… _stature,_ I suppose _every_ blow is a low one.” 

“You just don’t get my humor,” Roxas responded, feigning hurt. 

“Yeah, Roxas. He’s just not on your _level,”_ Sora chimed in, and Roxas nearly snorted in spite of himself.

Riku clapped his mittened hands together. “Alright, alright! Come on, let’s keep moving. But I’m telling you, I won’t believe it till I meet him face-to-face. Which won’t happen. Because he doesn’t exist.”

At Riku’s behest, the group begrudgingly agreed to trudge onward through the wide, white world. They stopped occasionally, kicking through snowdrifts on the off-chance that Heartless might be hiding within. Lea and Riku hung back to bicker on and off over the existence of one famous bearded figure while Sora and Roxas scouted ahead. Though Sora had managed to stave off his own instincts thus far, Roxas could tell by the twitching of his gloved fingers that his friend was one brief lapse in self-control shy of instigating a full-on snowball fight. As much as he wanted to encourage the diversion, maybe even be the one to throw the first cold clump of packed powder, they were here on business, not pleasure. But as they searched, part of him began to question the accuracy of Kairi’s intel; they’d been wandering the frozen perimeter of town for long enough now that, statistically speaking, they should have bumped into at least a few odd Heartless here and there. Reports of Heartless appearances grew fewer and further between with each passing day. It wouldn’t have surprised him if they had simply up and left this world of their own volition. _Still,_ Roxas thought, _we should be thorough. Maybe we’ll have more luck once we enter the town._

The moment the team passed through the candy cane gates, a chilly silence shivered through their bones. Gone was the customary twinkle of cheerful music, the clanking of diligent hammers working overtime to construct toys, the distant laughter of children dancing merrily through the streets. Gently swaying in the breeze, even the Christmas lights strung overhead managed to look ominous. They flickered like an omen under starless indigo skies. Roxas inhaled sharply through his nostrils as his stomach dropped. 

“Is it just me,” Lea said, tapping the tip of his Keyblade against a nearby lamppost, “or is this place giving anyone _else_ the heebie-jeebies?”

Radiant particles began to gather around Riku’s palm. A split second later his own Keyblade materialized in a shaft of light. “It’s not just you.”

Sora and Roxas followed suit. For the mission Sora had equipped his Decisive Pumpkin keychain, a bit of festive fun to match the charming town. But Roxas, whose stint as a member of the Organization had taught him to over-prepare for every assignment, had brought along Oblivion—couldn’t be _too_ safe, though prior to setting out on the Gummi Ship they’d all agreed that it was highly unlikely that they’d run into serious trouble. Now Roxas glanced over at Sora’s whimsical Keyblade, concern knitting his brow. _What if we do run into something? Can_ that _really_ _protect him?_

“Where _is_ everyone?!” Sora wondered aloud. “It’s so bizarre! All the windows are dark, and I don’t even hear anyone singing. This isn’t like Christmas Town at all!” 

“Let’s do some recon,” Roxas suggested. 

Lea quirked an eyebrow in his direction. “Nice vocab word, Roxas! So you _do_ remember some of your training.” 

“I remember enough,” Roxas shot back. “Enough to remember how mean to me you were when I joined!” 

“Can we save the memories for later?” Riku butt in. Roxas scowled at him, though he had a point. Despite the fact that Roxas and his silver-haired rival seemed to be on decent terms nowadays, they hadn’t quite discarded the ancient chips they still carried on their shoulders in regards to one another. He was about to launch into a petty response when Riku cut him off again, hastening to add, “But Roxas is right. We should see if we can find any clues about what happened. Maybe we can try knocking on doors?”

“An amazing plan, Riku,” Lea said. _“Oh, Lea, do tell us tales of your heroic exploits in the wilds of Christmas Town!_ Well, here’s the action-packed story of how I became a solicitor.”

“Shut up, Lea,” Roxas told him, not unkindly. 

Lea shut up. 

After deciding against splintering off in different directions, together the group meandered through the streets in search of signs of life. Empty alleyways and darkened street corners met them where they went. Regrouping in the main square after they had scoured the vast majority of the blessedly small village, Riku noted with disappointment how the only “live” thing they’d encountered in their reconnaissance had been the humming electric wires that powered the town.

“Maybe everyone’s off on vacation,” Sora ventured. “I bet even Santa gets tired of the cold sometimes! What if he’s on Destiny Islands right now, looking for us?”

Riku made a low whine in the back of his throat that sounded a lot like resignation. “Well,” he said, “we didn’t find any Heartless, but we didn’t find the townspeople either. I don’t know about the rest of you, but I don’t intend on going back until we figure out what’s happened here.” 

“Easier said than done,” Lea scoffed. “But… I guess you can count me in. As long as we’re back home in time for dinner.”

“Me too,” Roxas agreed.

“Me three!” came Sora’s enthusiastic reply. He thrust his Keyblade toward the sky. “Alright! All for one, and one for all!” 

His three party members blinked at him, their faces utterly devoid of emotion. Sora sheepishly let the weapon drop to his side and used his free hand to scratch at the back of his head. Through a toothy grin, he said, “Well, it was worth a shot. I’ll have to teach you—“ 

Before he could do so, however, a low, booming sound vibrated the very air around them. In unison, the four teammates pressed their hands against their ears to block it out. 

“What in the name of Mickey _blasted_ Mouse—“ Lea gasped through gritted teeth. 

“It’s coming from over that hill!” Roxas said, gesturing with a nod toward one of the many hills overlooking Christmas Town. As quickly as it had come the haunting boom faded out. They tentatively lowered their arms, each looking to another for answers none possessed. 

“Do you think it’s… Heartless?!” Sora asked. 

Riku readjusted his grip on his Keyblade and clenched his jaw. “Whatever it is, I think it knows we’re here.” 

Without another word they took off running in the direction of the sound. Roxas was the first to crest the hill, panting as he skidded to a halt in the snow. Some of it had made its way into his boots during his frantic scramble up the steep slick slope; his toes had gone numb in the cold and damp, and every muscle ached under the domain of the bitter winter wilderness. But whatever mild discomfort he was experiencing now took a backseat to the visceral fear that dripped down his spine at the sight of the gargantuan Heartless wreaking havoc on a small clearing atop the ridge. Its body vaguely resembled an antique mantle clock, if such a clock had grown to over ten times its original size and sprouted eight spindly legs. On its face—where its nose ought to be, perhaps—three clock hands of different sizes spun in mad circles. 

Roxas heard Lea curse breathlessly behind him. To his right, Sora and Riku were two ghosts, their faces white as the ground underfoot. 

“We’ve faced bigger,” Riku said after a moment. “Right, Sora?”

“Of course!” Sora replied. “It’s just… for some reason, this one gives me a bad feeling. It almost feels… _familiar?_ But I’m sure I’ve never seen it before…”

“You kiddin’ me right now? You guys took down _Xehanort,”_ Lea said. “Compared to that, this should be a piece of cake, right?” 

Roxas couldn’t easily determine whether or not Lea had said it more to reassure the others or to reassure himself, but he caught a glimpse of him indulging in what Roxas had long ago realized was a nervous tick: drumming his fingers against his thigh. _Joke around all you want, Lea,_ Roxas thought. _In the end, you’re just as scared as the rest of us._

“Sora’s right,” Roxas agreed. “It’s definitely not the biggest Heartless I’ve seen, but there’s something… _weird_ about it.”

Riku glanced at him sidelong. “It _does_ seem powerful. Someone should stay back and focus on healing. Can you handle it?” 

The fact that the suggestion had come from Riku made Roxas want to stubbornly refuse on principle, but he bit back his vitriol and nodded. “We can always trade out, if you get tired.” 

With that, Riku and Lea split off in opposite directions, giving the monster a wide berth as they attempted to flank it. Sora lingered long enough to empty his pockets of ethers and dump them into Roxas’s arms. 

“It’s not much,” he said apologetically, “but hopefully it helps!” 

“Good luck,” Roxas replied. And mentally he added, _Be safe,_ but Sora was off before he could say it aloud. 

In the moments that followed, he would come to regret that hesitation.

 


	2. Chapter 2

In retrospect, he couldn’t have stopped it. 

Standing just outside the radius of the gigantic Heartless’s ruthless attacks, Roxas felt powerless despite the top-level Cure spells he uttered with as much frequency as his body (and Sora’s ethers) would allow, the potions he threw, the last-minute Reflects he cast over his friends as they fought. It was as though the battle was contained inside of a snowglobe and he, a helpless bystander peering in through the glass, could do nothing but watch the figures within spin themselves dizzy. For every Curaga he landed, two more were broken mid-heal by the ferocious beast. For every Reflega he executed with impeccable timing, the creature landed two more heavy blows. 

Hot tears pricked at Roxas’s eyes. _We can’t lose,_ he thought bitterly. _Not here. Not like this!_

But no matter how he looked at it, the odds of coming out of this unscathed, let alone _alive,_ seemed slim to none. Still, he held out hope. So long as they were upright, they yet could emerge victorious. 

It was when Sora’s head hit the ground that Roxas felt the full crushing weight of their reality: _what if they weren’t walking away from this?_

Stiffened by shock, Roxas’s fingers released their grip on the potion he’d been about to toss in Sora’s direction. Cushioned by the snow, the potion bottle did not shatter; instead, its sea-green contents spilled from the overturned aperture, and the difference in temperature between the liquid, warmed by Roxas’s iron grip, and the ice crystals as they melted created a sizzling sound that sickened Roxas to his core.  

 _“SORA!”_ Riku screamed. If it wasn’t already running cold, Roxas’s blood would have frozen then at the raw desperation in Riku’s voice. Still rooted to the spot, he watched Riku abandon his Keyblade on the ground and sprint to where Sora lay in the powdered snow, chest visibly heaving as he struggled to breathe.

“Riku,” Sora coughed. “It… came out of nowhere…” 

“Don’t talk,” Riku said. “Just. Hold on. Roxas!” 

The urgency with which Riku barked his name jolted Roxas from his daze. While Lea had the Heartless distracted he rushed over, frantically searching his rucksack for potions, ethers, _anything_ that he could use on Sora, pull him through the worst of it. But the useless piece of fabric remained empty, as did Roxas’s energy reserves. What they had endured so far already threatened to put him out of commission for a solid week; his exhausted body couldn’t take much more. Worse yet, they’d hardly put a dent in the monster’s reinforced armor shell. A few measly scratches against its thick leather hide were all they had to show for their efforts. 

“I’m out of potions,” Roxas whispered. His voice, a husk of its former self, crackled like tissue paper. 

Riku regarded him with a look of pure terror. _“What?!”_

Before Roxas could respond, a bloodcurdling shriek like a wounded animal crying out in pain pierced the frosty air. It was a moment before he was able to register that it had originated from Lea. This time, adrenaline reacted for him, driving him to move without thinking. As if puppeteered by an unseen hand Roxas rose up, dodged a sudden, violent attack by the skin of his teeth, and dashed over to drop to his knees beside his felled friend.  

“Lea!” he exclaimed. _“No!”_

Lea brushed a matted lock of hair from his forehead and groaned. “Now _this_ will be a story worth telling,” he chuckled hoarsely.

Swallowing down the same tears he had triumphed over earlier, Roxas said, “Then you have to hang in there so you can tell it yourself! Can you get up? We just… have to make it back to the Gummi Ship. You remember where we parked it, right? It’s not that far. You just have to get up.” 

“Sorry, kid,” Lea muttered. “Just… let me rest for a bit.” His eyelids fluttered shut, the last pages of a well-worn book, and Roxas suddenly did not know what to do with his hands. After a moment he settled on hiding behind them.

But in his shock he had neglected the imminent threat that loomed just above. It had been distracted for a bit, perhaps by Riku, but now it turned its full attention on Roxas. 

“I’ll finish you!” Roxas shouted. If he could destroy the beast before his friends’ hearts slipped away entirely, he could fly the Gummi Ship up the hill, land it in the clearing, and drag their unconscious bodies on board. It wasn’t the best solution. The odds of him defeating this monster were astronomically low. The odds of him defeating it uninjured were even lower. 

But it was all he had.

In response, the creature all but unhinged its jaw in order to let loose the same deep sound they’d heard earlier (which Roxas now thought resembled the eerie toll of a grandfather clock), only in such close proximity that Roxas could feel his eardrums vibrate deep within his skull. He pressed his palms against his ears, trying to block out the sound as best he could. 

When it stopped ringing, Roxas summoned Oblivion and readied himself for the end.

He scanned the field for Riku but found no sign of his teammate. _Did he desert us?!_ he thought, rolling to avoid one of the Heartless’s many feet as it stomped around the clearing. _No, he wouldn’t leave Sora. Maybe they made it to safety._

Another attack sent Roxas tumbling to the ground, casting aside his Keyblade. Panicking, he held out his arm to summon it back. From a distance he watched it dissolve into a shower of sparks, but before it could return to his hand the monster lunged, mouth gaping like a festering wound. Then, for reasons beyond Roxas’s comprehension, it stopped short of him by a few feet. The hands on its clock face whirred in mad circles and Roxas, unable to look away, stared up at it with what defiance he could muster.

“Come on,” he yelled. “What are you waiting for?! You might as well finish what you started!” 

Roxas’s Keyblade finally manifested itself in his grip once more just as the monster shuffled backwards in preparation to run at him again. He pointed Oblivion’s sharp tip straight into the air and screamed as its teeth closed around him—

—and was surprised to find he felt… _nothing._ No pain, no cold. Nothing at all. _Were his eyes open?_ They _felt_ open, but he couldn’t tell; darkness engulfed him, and not the wispy, vaporous darkness he’d come to expect of destroyed Heartless. This darkness was flat, static, and devoid of emotion. Like a deep and dreamless sleep. 

_Was he… dead?_

But the more he attempted to squint into the unfeeling void, the more certain he became that there was something glinting far in the distance (though he could not accurately judge said distance with no landmarks and no light). He willed his body to move and found himself floating instead of walking. Cautiously he drifted forward, until the small, glinting thing sharpened into focus. 

It was a heart, lit by a soft inner glow, its chiseled facets glimmering in the dimensionless dark. 

“Hello?” he said, or rather _projected;_ his voice emanated not from a moving mouth but from somewhere within, and it echoed in the surrounding nothingness. “Who are you?”

“Who are _you?”_ the other heart replied. “How did you get here?” 

If he could have blinked, Roxas would have. As it were, he bobbed up and down, nothing but a disembodied heart himself. “My name is Roxas, and I don’t really know how I got _here,”_ he said. “The last thing I remember was… it all happened so fast… my friends and I were fighting this massive Heartless, and then…” 

He trailed off, the beginnings of a theory coalescing in his mind. If the Heartless had swallowed him whole, wouldn’t it stand to reason that he was _inside_ of it? He glanced to and fro. Only the abyss glanced back. But for reasons he couldn’t put his finger on, that theory _felt_ right. Either way, he didn’t know enough about Heartless anatomy to dispute it.

“Heartless?!” the other heart repeated. “Oh, no, no. You’ve got me all wrong. I don’t want to fight anyone. I’m just a little stressed right now. That’s all.” 

“Um, again. Who are you, exactly?” 

The heart chuckled, rocking this way and that. “Why, don’t you recognize me?” 

“I… can’t say that I do,” Roxas mumbled. 

“I know my influence has waned as of late, but I didn’t realize circumstances were _this_ dire. Well, I have many names in many places. Perhaps you’d recognize me by one of them. Some call me Father Christmas, others Kris Kringle. Here, most perplexingly, I’m often referred to as ‘Sandy Claws’. But most know me simply as Santa.” 

Roxas paused to marinate in the information. “Santa… _Claus?_ But you don’t _look_ like Santa! You look like a creepy clock! And I don’t think _Santa_ would have _attacked my friends!”_

“A _creepy_ —now, young man! You should watch your tone around your elders before I move your name onto the naughty list!” the heart told him indignantly. “That accusation is preposterous. Even if I _wanted_ to, which, let me be perfectly clear with you: I do _not,_ I don’t have the _time_ to attack anyone! We’re behind, you see. Behind on orders, behind on toys, behind, behind, behind!” 

“Er, no offense, sir, but I don’t think you’ll be moving anyone’s name to any list as long as you’re in this state—“

The heart resumed its rant as though it hadn’t heard him. “And do the townspeople respect me? No! They let their children run in and out of my workshop willy-nilly! Breaking things! Making messes! They have no respect for me, no respect for Christmas. Why, if I had it my way, I’d…”

While he mumbled on, Roxas’s thoughts wandered off. _Did Santa really fall to stress-induced darkness? The real Santa Claus? That’s… no, it couldn’t be… And yet, everything seems to fit…_

“Excuse me, sir!” Roxas cut in. The heart grumbled at the interruption, but put a halt to his one-man tirade against the decline of Christmas spirit. “If you want,” Roxas continued, “I can help. My… my friends can, too! But you have to calm down! You’re hurting people! That’s not what Christmas is all about!” 

The heart seemed to consider this proposal. After a moment, he quietly said, “Hurting people?”

Roxas bobbed up and down. “You hurt my friends! So snap out of it, and come help me save them! And we’ll help you catch up on your work, but first you have to help us!” 

“Thank you, young man. There’s just one problem with this holly jolly plan: try as I might, I can’t seem to find my way out of here. You wouldn’t happen to know where the exit is, would you?” 

“I don’t, but I’ll find a way. You can count on me!” 

As if on cue, the dark backdrop began to groan and shudder. _The darkness is losing its hold on Santa’s heart!_ Roxas thought. _Maybe I can sneak out!_

A crack appeared before him in the otherwise black abyss, and he jumped on the chance to shimmy through it. Back on the outside he had a moment of terror as he hovered above his body, still spreadeagled in the snow. But it passed, and he dove back in, returning to his corporeal form with a violent cough. How inconvenient it was to inhabit flesh with nerve endings, a sensitivity to the cold, and useless muscles designed for the sole purpose of aching after exercise. He pushed himself to unsteady feet. The Heartless—Santa’s Heartless—stood motionless above him. 

With the last of his strength Roxas charged at it, using his Keyblade to slash an X across its face. It stumbled back, shook its ugly clock head, opened its mouth to roar—and Roxas drove Oblivion down its glistening red maw. It howled its last howl before tumbling to the ground, sending puffs of powdered snow into the air. Roxas’s legs gave out and he collapsed next to Sora, panting. He watched through lidded eyes as the felled beast’s massive heart shot into the sky and flew off.

Roxas pressed a hand to his chest until his breathing slowed and his pulse returned to normal. He lay in the snow for what seemed like an eternity before he heard distant sleigh bells in the air. A strange flying sleigh drawn by even stranger flying reindeer landed nearby, and a plump old man in a red suit hopped down from the driver’s seat. He waddled over to Roxas and peered down at him from beneath the puffy white rim of a red nightcap. 

“Ah! I’m all back together again!” he said, cheerfully patting his belly. “You must be the one who saved me. It’s good to meet you properly. To you, I owe my undying gratitude.” He held out a gloved hand and Roxas allowed him to help him to his feet. 

 _You don’t say,_ he thought. But he straightened up as best he could with his exhausted muscles and said, “And you must be Santa. No worries. It is my job, after all. Just—” He glanced down at Sora and, over to the side, Lea, who were both clinging to life by a thread. _No sign of Riku, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it…_  

“Of course! You didn’t think I would forget your friends, did you? I have just the thing. Hold his open mouth, will you?” The jolly old man gestured toward Sora and produced a thermos from his pocket. He unscrewed the top just enough to let a single droplet of what looked to be hot chocolate land on Sora’s tongue. Instantly the color returned to Sora’s cheeks. He gasped his way upright, clutching Roxas’s shirt and looking around wildly. 

“The Heartless!” he said. “Did we win?!” 

Roxas awkwardly patted his head. “Yeah, Sora. _We_ won.” 

If Sora picked up on his sarcasm, he ignored it. Instead he wrapped his arms around Roxas’s neck. “Thank goodness!” he yelped. When Roxas could no longer breathe he gently pulled away. Sora blinked, then settled on glaring up at his savior for the few brief seconds before the cogs in his brain clicked into place. The pure elation on his face when he realized who stood before him threatened to send Roxas’s heart soaring back up and out of his body once more. 

“SANTA?!” Sora exclaimed. “Aw, man! Where’s Riku when you need him?!“ 

He looked expectantly at Roxas, who had to purse his lips and look away. “I don’t know,” he said bitterly. “He just kind of… left.” 

“Left? I don’t get it. Riku wouldn’t leave me! He probably just went to get the Gummi Ship. I’m sure he’ll be back soon.” 

 _How confident are you that he wouldn’t just abandon you here, tuck his tail between his legs and run?_ Roxas thought, but he kept it to himself. “We’ll see. Anyway, Santa kind of… agreed to help us out. Let’s go wake Lea up.” 

Sora sprang to his feet as though he hadn’t been staring down eternity two minutes prior. He grinned and shook Santa’s hand with his usual vigor. “Nice to see you again!” he said. “And thanks for helping us with that Heartless! Would you stick around for a bit? I have a friend who _really_ wants to meet you.” 

Santa chuckled. “And it’s lovely to see you again, too, Sora. However, I believe _you’ll_ be the one sticking around. You’ve already been recruited to help me wrap up my work in time for the holidays,” he replied. 

“Oh, boy!” Sora said. “I’d be happy to! Riku, wherever you are, hurry up!” 

Unwilling to burst Sora’s bubble, Roxas hastily darted over to Lea and beseeched Santa to use the same healing magic to revive him. With another drop of what Roxas now felt _positive_ was just hot chocolate, Lea inhaled sharply, groaned, then rolled over onto his side. 

“Five more minutes,” he pleaded. Sora and Roxas laughed. 

“Get up, you lazy bum!” Sora told him. “We got rid of the Heartless, but we’ve still got work to do.” 

Lea swiveled his neck to narrow his eyes at the two younger Keyblade wielders. “We got rid of the—no way, that thing was massive! And you’re tellin’ me that Roxas and Riku defeated it on their own?! I’m calling bull—“

“Shhhhhh!” Roxas told him. _“Riku_ ran for the hills! It was all me. What can I say? I’m stronger than all of you combined.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Lea stood, brushing flakes of ice crystals from his black Organization coat. _“Sure_ you are. Whatever; as long as it’s gone, who cares? Anyway, where’s—“

The words fell away as he suddenly noticed Santa’s presence. Roxas could practically hear the sound of his jaw hitting the ground.

“Merry Christmas,” Santa said, amused. “I don’t believe I’ve made your acquaintance yet, Lea. Before you ask: of _course_ I know your name. I tend to remember those who flip-flop between ‘naughty’ and ‘nice’ more often than it snows in Christmas Town.” 

Lea’s cheeks turned as red as his hair. “Well, gee. Now I feel bad for not believing in you.” 

“That’s all in the past,” Santa reassured him. “What matters is that you do now. Now, why don’t the three of you hop in my sleigh, and we’ll head down to my workshop and get started?” 

Uncharacteristic solemnity hardened Sora’s features. “No, thanks. You go on ahead,” he said. “We have to stay here and wait for Riku to get back with the Gummi Ship! Or he won’t know where to find us!” 

Santa considered it for a moment, then nodded. “You know the way,” he told Sora. “When your other friend arrives, tell him I’m eager to meet him.” 

He clambered back onto the sleigh, and with a snap of the reins it rose into the air. The trio watched him disappear over the ridge.

“Flying reindeer,” Lea exhaled. “That’s not something you see every day. I’m still curious, though. How _did_ you defeat that Heartless?” 

No sooner had Roxas opened his mouth to respond than the familiar hum of the Gummi Ship’s engine permeated the air. They turned to look in the opposite direction, where the ship gently lowered to the ground and powered down. Riku stepped out from the pilot’s seat, his face aged ten years in the past hour. 

“Riku!” Sora cried in an almost disappointed tone of voice. He ran toward his best friend, tripping over his too-large shoes in the snow. “You just missed him!” 

Riku rubbed his bloodshot eyes. “Sora?” he said. “You’re… awake! Where’s the Heartless?! And who are you talking about?”

“Santa, of course! He was _here,_ Riku! When I woke up he was standing above me, and so was Roxas! He saved me and Lea!” 

“How hard did you hit your head?” Riku teased, pinching the bridge of his nose but smiling all the same. “Sorry I’m late, though. I…I ran as fast as I could. I figured Roxas could distract it, but…” He frowned. “I guess it’s gone, huh?” 

“No thanks to you!” Roxas told him, catching up to Sora. He crossed his arms and flared his nostrils. “You left us all for dead!” 

“I was getting us a way _out!”_ Riku protested. 

“Kids, kids,” Lea interjected, holding out his arms as if that would deter them from arguing. “Let’s not fight. We’re all here, we’re all fine, and far be it from us to keep Mr. Claus waiting for any longer.” 

With that, the weary crew clambered into the Gummi Ship for a short jaunt down to Christmas Town’s main square, where its citizens had emerged from hiding to thank them for saving the town and, with it, Christmas itself.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Epilogue**

****

“So the Heartless was _Santa?!”_ Riku exclaimed. The four teammates sat in a circle on the floor of Santa’s living room, basking in the warmth of the hearth. To Lea’s chagrin and Sora’s undying delight, they’d been instructed to perform the final checks on outgoing presents. Riku remained enamored of the whole endeavor; his initial encounter with Santa had rendered him speechless for a solid five minutes as he’d wandered around the house, frantically gesturing at portraits of Mr. and Mrs. Claus nailed to candy cane walls, the a closet full of identical red suits, and other unmistakeable indicators of the man’s authenticity.   
****

“I guess even the personification of Christmas spirit isn’t immune to stress,” Lea informed him. “Wait, does that mean Santa _also_ had a Nobody? Is there some guy by the name of Naxats running around out there?”

Roxas jabbed his elbow into Lea’s ribcage. “Get real! That’s impossible. I think.” 

“That doesn’t mean it’s not funny,” Lea replied. 

“It’s not,” Riku cut in. This time, Sora jabbed _his_ elbow into _Riku’s_ ribcage. 

“Stop getting distracted!” he chided them. For punctuation, he tossed a particularly lumpy present into Lea’s lap. Lea turned it over to inspect the tag. 

“Wait, this one’s for me!” he announced. “Christmas is in two days… I don’t think Santa would be mad if I opened it early.” 

“Maybe not, but _I_ would be! Lea, please don’t!” Sora whined. “If the rest of us have to be patient, then you do too!” 

Riku nodded sagely, framing his chin with his thumb and index finger. “Besides,” he said, “Christmas came early for all of us this year anyway. We saved Santa, and, what’s more, we got to spend quality time together like this. If you ask me, that’s what Christmas is _really_ about.” 

“Shut up, Riku,” the other three chirped in unison. 

Riku shut up. 

 

**Author's Note:**

> written for KH Secret Santa 2018! my assignment was twitter user tabifawncat (i don't know their ao3 unfortunately), who asked for "something funny, sweet, romantic, sexy, happy, or silly of my favorite KH boys Sora, Roxas, Riku, Axel/Lea. Angst and emotional themes accepted as well whatever the artist feels easier to do." so this is excessively cheesy!
> 
> the original idea i came up with was much different, but i think this got long enough (it kind of got away from me, oops)! hope you enjoy this fluffy/semi-angst-but-not-really Christmas-themed fic!! ♡
> 
> pixels from [here](http://pixels--galore.tumblr.com/).


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